pandorum

The place looks empty Swedes should have been seeded to this not the final

Ales Dryml Tai Woffinden Nicki Pedersen Maciej Janowski I think GB will get 36 but I hope they get a lot more

I would like to see more teams involved in the qualifying stage but why change a winning format. SWC is one of the events of the year so leave it alone I say No good trying to use other sports as a guide as they have plenty of money so can afford to have things once every four years. Speedway is the poor relation and it gives the riders as well as the fans something to take pride in.

The smart money is on 3rd but if the lads ride with the determination they showed on Monday and they can keep the gremlins at bay then who knows. There is nobody in the Polish and Denmark teams that is unbeatable. As long as they go down battling I will give them credit for trying. Let them know that we were there :)

Exactly. It's the same with SGP and EL TV coverage on here. Some people forget that sport can be exciting in many ways. Speedway can have great racing but also the tension from a close meeting or some controversy can incite a lot of excitement. I nearly put my head through the TV when the ref seemed to allow Holder to send Harris into orbit. Both SWC meeting so far have had me on the edge of my seat and off it supporting Russia and GB with tons of exciting racing and nail biting moments. I think the commentary crew have done a great job in getting involved in that excitement and even the mad woman in the pits has managed to do a decent job. This mythical track that people here seem to compare meetings to must be pretty amazing but the rest of us have to make do with the real thing which can be boring at times and then explode into life with something quite extraordinary. SWC has excelled itself this year in terms of excitement as far as I am concerned and the racing from both meetings has been good quality and as far as Lynn and Emil Sayfutdinov is concerned sometimes amazing. Here is hoping the bad weather on Thursday does not spoil Sweden and GB can at the very least go down fighting and be part of something special.

I have always thought the Joker a bloody stupid idea but one or two things have to be said for it. It certainly creates excitement and controversy during a meeting. Whining on about teams who use it getting an advantage over the opposition makes for good talking points and discussion and gets the blood up for the next meeting with the degenerates who gain from that. It's not at all like the stupid double point rule in EL speedway, which is a major embarrassment, as it actually benefits a team due to the fact it can be used tactically whereas the moronic rule in EL stands or falls by whoever is out in the next couple of heats being capable of benefiting from the rule. Should it stay or should it go? Good question as it does have it's good points even if it makes the sport look like 'It's A Knockout'. My gut feeling is leave it in as it can create incredible drama like it has in the last two SWC meetings unlike the EL rule which is just so Mickey Mouse and rarely benefits a team that falls 10 behind whilst replacing a perfectly good tac-sub rule. It doesn't alter my opinion that it's stupid but for all it's stupidity it seems to do a good job of adding to the excitement in SWC. Perhaps if it was not called a Joker?

To be fair to Tai he said his chain snapped

Congrats to the Aussies. Bloody great meeting. We were pretty good with everybody contributing. Yeah we had some bad luck but that's speedway. Probably not a chance on Thursday but you never can tell

'Chris Harris went down too easily' I think Holder has been on the crack pipe What a meeting. Whoever wins this deserves it but I truly hope our boys can do this.

Define 'best' as 'best' does not always equate to points or goals or anything else regarding scores as it is a highly subjective term. And to be fair I never claimed anyone was the best team that night. Simply Russia deserved their win. The Russians won two out of the five phases of the meeting #1 and #2. The Poles two #4 and #5 (with a huge slice of luck) and the Danes one #3. Russia were coasting to a third win in the last phase when Laguta clipped the fence whilst leading by a mile which gifted the Poles and the Danes a point they did not deserve. Minus the Joker that would have made the scores R 34, P 33, D 32. So the Russians got as bit of bad luck and the Poles and Danes some good. So does that mean Denmark were better because they got a jammy point they did not deserve or Russia were worse because they used a rule that has been used for ages now by all the teams in WTC including I am sure at some stage Denmark and Poland. So is it OK when they use a joker but not Russia? Russia had the b##t rider that night and he got decent support from his team resulting in them winning with a joker and narrowly missing out on winning without one by a slice of awful luck. What do these guys have to do to get a bit of credit. Win the meeting from the 15 yard mark I think the joker is a bloody stupid idea myself but it's there to be used if and when required. Would Poland and Denmark have refused one if it had fell for them in heat 16? I don't believe that Poland or Denmark were 'better' than Russia. Denmark had more lasts and only the same wins as Russia not including heat #19. Poland had most wins but more lasts than Russia which included heat #19. What does that prove? Bugger all. 'Best' is a meaningless term as it depends on your perspective. I was supporting Russia so admit bias. I want them to win if GB can't. They won the meeting fairly and squarely and deserve credit for doing that in a meeting which had Poland as dead certs to go through. It's like saying Mark Loram did not deserve his world championship because he never won a GP. I hope GB win tonight and don't care whether they win by tape exclusions or engine failures or simply by winning races fair and square. The 'best' team tonight is probably Australia but I hope that it ends in tears for them

GB have a chance, Ward in or out makes no difference as the Aussies are very strong regardless. Depends whether the talk can be turned into actions by our 4. I do hope so as half of my prediction turned out right and would be nice to get it right about tonight. Whatever happens hope the meeting is as tense as Saturday with more than a few good races. Come on England (GB)

That is a truly ridiculous statement as how many times has a match been won or a team qualified by using the joker in SWC. It's the rules and to say the best team didn't win is just plain silly. Yes they had a bit of luck that the joker fell just right for them. But you need a bit of luck to in these types of meetings. I am sure Poland have had a joker in the last three years and benefited from a bit of luck somewhere along the line. . I think it's a daft idea myself but it's there to create a bit of excitement and a team wins or loses under the rules they have to play by. The Russians could have still won without the joker but had a bit of bad luck in heat #19 with Laguta. If he had won they would have had 1 point more than Denmark and the scores would have been 34 to Russia, 33 to Poland and 32 to Denmark at the end. So they had some good fortune and some bad. The Russians deserved their victory it's as simple as that.

http://www.speedwaygp.com/news/article/1570/swc/hamill-i-earned-those-two Great rider and big on the track and off. Was fortunate enough to see him in his first season at Cradley and it was a pity he did not win that heat as he did indeed work hard for it. The USA team did well to get to the qualifier and it will have Billy did the USA a power of good with his short term comeback. We need the USA and Britain to compete in SWC. Good luck to the Yanks and hopefully we will have something to be proud of on Monday.

We have a chance tonight if everybody turns up and rides like they should. Crumpie is NOT unbeatable. As to Russia they won the meeting under the rules of the WTC. So they had a Joker. It wasn't the first and won't be the last. They had a bit of luck because Emil was there to pick it up and score 6 points. Not the first team to qualify for the final that had a bit of luck. They had to be in a position to take the luck and their three riders in heats #17, 18 and 19 rode blinders and it was a bit of bad luck for them that allowed us heat #20 to be as exciting as it was. I hope our lads get a bit of luck tonight and make the final. If they do then the qualifier on Thursday may well be one of the meetings of the century.

Clucking bell....what a bloody meeting. Not for the racing but what tension. What a terrifying last 4 heats. I was shouting for the Russians and nearly jumped through the TV several times That's the first part of my prediction all I need now is for our lot to join them. Was that last heat the greatest speedway race of the 21st century? If not I am miffed I missed whichever one was. Yes the start girls were out of the top drawer and easily eclipsed the Monster crew.

That is exactly the attitude we need. If it rubs off on the other three we have a chance. If not we will finish 3rd or 4th on Thursday

problem with signal it says so hope they start from heat #1

Just because there is a ruling that foreign riders can ride in the leagues does not mean we have to employ them. I agree with you that we should set a number of home riders. in both PL and EL but we should make it worthwhile by allowing very liberal doubling up rules and maybe even a squad system for Brit riders to allow an EL Brit to supplement his income riding PL and same for NL riders. These lads can't compete unless they have a way to make a bit of money by getting plenty of meetings. We should have rules that discriminate in favour of our young riders the same as Poland and Sweden do. It annoys me to see some foreign rider get 3 rides in the EL and score none when a young Brit could do that easily enough but hopefully would learn from the experience and improve.

It depends who 'turns up'. They are capable of winning there. No Scott last night is ominous but maybe the rest will do him good. I will be shouting our lads on via the TV screen and hope they do it. If not then they will go out on Thursday as that meeting will be far to tough for our pretty weak side. Best chance for us is Monday.

A good idea but still can't see what harm individual threads do. Every match in the UK seems to get a thread and that's fine so why not multi threads here for the excellent race cards on display? It just seems someone got into a tizzy because someone posted the race card thread really early because the teams have pretty much been announced. Considering some of the trivial nonsense that gets posted on the forum as a whole it's pretty small potatoes. That argument could easily be used in the leagues with one thread for each team but they would get a bit unwieldy and probably sink under their own weight. I enjoy the International sections and hope they don't end up with the fractional trivial arguments about nothing that the league forums see. I would rather see the cards early than an hour before the meeting as I have to go to the local library to print one off. So I say well done to all for getting ready in such good time barring the changes that will probably appear in the next day or two. Might be a good idea for the people who do cards to leave a blank space in the scorecard so a last minute change can be accomadated by having 5 riders instead of 4 in the score chart part of the race card. the 4 riders and a blank space. That seemed to me to be a certainty after JK got hurt. better off with experience than youth. I think the Russians have a chance in this to get to the final. And if we get there from KL the final will be a cracker. a SF with Poland , Oz and the Danes fighting for one spot would be a hell of a run off as well.

I am just grateful to the folks who take time trouble and effort to make racecards for the rest of us. As I see it bandwidth is being wasted in a lot more useless threads than these such as pretty much any EL discussion involving Poole or Coventry or any EL discussion that these people can involve Poole or Coventry which is pretty much all of them I don't see it as a competition or who is first as I like to check out all the cards for SWC and then pick the one that suits me. The fact they are available now is fine with me as it gives me time to get one printed out as I don't have a home printer. There is enough useless arguing here on the Forum without inventing new ones in this International section which is the one I find myself at more nowadays as the UK racing sections seem to have become more about boring arguments involving Poole or Coventry than speedway. My suggestion is take a deep breath and worry about something more important......like Poole or Coventry

Anyone got anything?

Simple answer very good. The squeaky voiced one is probably the best of the Polish youngsters along with Dudek and there are a bunch of very good upandcoming ones as well. Tobias Musielac is a decent prospect and I like Jakob Jamrog. We have some decent good lads here in the UK but they don't get a chance to learn in the EL due to the obsession we have with training everyone elses youngsters but our own. Poland and Sweden make sure theirs get a chance in the big league. Obviously it's up to them to grasp it.

Sad state of affairs for Brit speedway and await Chris' excuses for this latest failure. Sadly we are just not good enough and are completely undeserving of any form of free pick for next season. Tai Woffinden said he wanted to qualify so hopefully next year he will have more luck with injury and do just that. There are plenty of riders who are of his standard who have not had a chance and plenty better than Harris who deserve a place more than he does. Ben Barker deserves a pick before Chris Harris and although not popular with a few here is a decent rider who at least shows a lot of heart especially when he represents his country. I support the Brits and want them to do well in the SWC and see them regularly in GP action but we need to deserve to be there rather than be there because we are British and get a pity pick for the TV audiences. Harris has consistency on his side and he has consistently proved he does not deserve to be in the GP. He has had some triumphs it is true but has never ranked above the most mediocre overall. He may well reach another GP final before he dissapears into the sunset for 2012 but unless he reaches the top 8 does not in any way deserve any consideration at all for 2013. And I like the bloke.

As we say in England '6 of one and half dozen of the other'. Sad all the same as simply another nail in the coffin of British speedway as we fall further behind in development of young British talent and TW may speak with an Aussie accent but he was born in Scunthorpe and is as British as fish and chips and also our best prospect. Riding in Sweden and Poland is essential nowadays to progress in the sport and the deterioration of the top British league with its lack of chances for British young talent leaves us as a backwater whilst the former 60s and 70s 'joke' nations such as the former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and former USSR push ahead and make progress year by year as the 'joke' becomes firmly on US. We need our top talent (what there is of it) really competing in the top European leagues and making progress instead of helping train everybody else's.